Meet the finalists

Congratulations to our 10 C-Prize finalists! These teams will now go on to compete for the grand prize, to be announced 1 December 2017...

TEAM HAURAKI

The Instant Visual wearable helps children with receptive language impairments to understand what is being said to them. This understanding leads to reduced anxiety for the child which in turn leads to an improvement in behaviour. An increase in receptive language skill will often result in improved expressive language skills also. The device is worn by the communication partner of the child which encourages interaction and better personal relationships.

We are excited to be developing this innovation to support the tireless efforts of the special needs community. Our technology works in partnership with families and educators to better enable children with special needs to fulfil their potential.

URUSENSE

UruSense designs wearable sensors for daily consumers to achieve their fitness goals. Using novel technologies UruSense is able to capture and track multiple muscle measurements.

The collected data will be collected and analysed to help consumers to answer the following fitness questions - What did I do? How well did I do? What can I do next? The collected data in combination with a series of databases and analytical algorithms will generate data that are informative, useful, and motivational to the consumers.

REHABILITATION INNOVATION TEAM

Stroke represents a massive health and societal burden worldwide, with 15 million people suffering a stroke each year. In many countries stroke is the number one cause of adult disability. The demand for rehabilitation services vastly outstrips the ability of health systems in developed and developing nations to provide rehabilitation. For people with stroke the lack of rehabilitation translates into poorer outcomes, with dire consequences of living with life-long physical disability. exciteBCI wearable technology is a revolutionary approach to stroke rehabilitation. Using a brain computer interface to drive a neuromodulatory intervention, exciteBCI helps to rewire the brain to promote recovery.

By reading brain activity from the surface of the head the brain computer interface predicts when a person intends to move. This enables the precise timing of stimulation of affected nerves and muscles to promote relearning of movement following stroke. Our research has shown that it is effective and fast. Significant improvements in outcomes in people with stroke have been seen after just 3 sessions. Typically, such improvements take months to achieve. exciteBCI is a cost-effective, smart, wearable technology which will improve outcomes and enable people with stroke to take control of their recovery.

RIPPL

We are Rippl. We are changing the way Deaf people interact with their auditory environments. Due to a lack of awareness of their environments, over 60 million profoundly Deaf people are being placed in potentially dangerous situations on a daily basis. This is why we have made it our mission to reconnect this community with the sounds around them, enabling them to confidently live a more active, independent life, and work safer.

The innovative core of our technology means that we have immense opportunities for diversification into the construction, aviation and manufacturing industries just to name a few areas in which we can revolutionise the way people work safer. We are dedicated to using the power of innovative technology in enabling this community to feel their space.

URI-GO

Millions of people with nerve damaging spinal cord injuries, prostate obstruction, multiple sclerosis,Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, stroke, and pelvic surgery can no longer sense how full their bladder is. Beyond the social anxiety this can cause, there are real medical consequences as well - such as overflow incontinence, urinary tract infection, and renal failure.

Uri-Go is a slim, discreet, lightweight wearable device that gives users an indication of how full their bladder is. In essence it replaces a part of the body that no longer works, restoring confidence, control and health. With Uri-Go you’ll always know when to pee even if your body doesn’t.

QUORALIS

Each year approximately 30 percent of New Zealanders aged 65 years and over will fall at least once. Five percent of these incidents result in a fracture and/or hospitalisation. These statistics dramatically increase with age and don’t just cause physical injuries but also leads to a loss of self-confidence and even kinesiophobia, a fear of physical movement.

FallCast is a wearable technology that aims to predict and identify a person at risk of falling up to three weeks in advance, providing an opportunity to intervene before an injury occurs. Having the foresight about a fall risk allows the user to go about their daily life unaided with confidence and peace of mind.

TEAM BOBUX

Through undertaking user research over the last few months, we discovered that there is a lot of uncertainty, particularly with first time parents around:

a) When they should be putting their kids into walking shoesb) Whether their child is walking ‘properly’.c) How long they should keep their kids in a pair and when they should upgrade to a bigger size.

Which led us to ask: “How might we empower parents with the knowledge of their child’s foot health and shoe size?” The ultimate goal of the project is to do just that by collecting data from within the shoe and presenting it back to the parents in a clear and understandable format. We could also notify the parents at critical times, such as when the child has grown out of the shoe, or if they need to pay a visit to a podiatrist.

We have discovered a potential solution that could be integrated into the shoe itself. This shoe could aid in improving the knowledge of foot movement and foot health for the design team at Bobux as well as the wider podiatry industry. By collecting data from wear over a few months, podiatrists could use live data to diagnose foot health problems, parents could have all the information they need when buying the next pair of shoes and Bobux could make exponential improvements with each new product we release to the market.

PHOTONIC INNOVATIONS

Methane has caused more catastrophic mining accidents than any other gas. It was the gas that combusted in the Pike River Mining Disaster.

The WLD4005 is a wearable laser based methane detection system that ensures workers who work around methane will be notified of the presence of volatile levels of methane. Laser offers unique detection qualities that existing methods cannot match.

This includes higher detection fidelity and drastically reduced maintenance burden. Photonic Innovations have been developing laser sensors for gas detection since 2015 and are incredibly proud to be bringing to market a wearable to keep workers safe in New Zealand and the world over.

TEAM MIGO

Migo is a mood-aware wearable device, app and support system to help young adults (18 - 30) understand and improve their mental health and wellbeing. This group is known as the Millenials, they are very tech savvy. They are also a group experiencing heightened anxiety and pessimism in response to an increasingly precarious and uncertain world (2017 Deloitte Millenial Survey).

Recording bio-data from the body, Migo will feed information back to the wearer about how s/he is responding to events in their daily lives. This real-time feedback helps the user to become aware of (generally unconscious) response choices, and therefore transform their experiences of anxiety and depression. Migo then shares this information with the user’s designated ‘Circles of Care’, providing the opportunity for friends, family and health professionals to extend their support in ways that work for the user. Migo combats the thing which makes mental health difficulties so much harder - isolation - by building support networks for the user, so there is no longer a sense of having to do this alone.